Betrayal in the Ranks
by Sapphire Stardust
Summary: In trade for a weeks worth of peace the Voltron Force heads to Doom for a Royal Birthday Gala for everyone's favorite Prince of Doom. However one of the members of the Voltron force has switched sides.. new allies and a new galaxy order, can Voltron win?
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Betrayal in the Ranks

**Author:** Sapphire Stardust

**Rating:** PG 13

**Summary:** In trade for a weeks worth of peace the Voltron Force heads to Doom for a Royal Birthday Gala for everyone's favorite Prince of Doom. However one of the members of the Voltron force has switched sides unbeknownst to the rest of the team. They are going to have to make a couple new allies if they want to bring down King Zarkon once and for all.

**Chapters:** 1/?

**Status:** Not Completed

**Author Notes:** The rating at the beginning of the chapter will be slightly different depending on the scenes. There will be one or two MA chapters based around violence and a lemon or two so I grouped the whole story under MA. The rest of the story is entirely K rated. I'll try and keep the lemon chapters separated from the storyline so you can skip them if you'd like and wont have to miss much of the story.

**Betrayal in the Ranks**

**Chapter one**

"Well that battle went swimmingly, I am _so_ glad that half of the castle orchards were destroyed along with the robeast." though Allura to herself. She glared balefully around the inside of Blue Lion's cockpit before sighing in resignation. She knew that she needed to go inside, but she really didn't want to face the disappointing looks from her advisor and her teammates. She knew that they all wanted her to resign, she just didn't have the skill to fly one of the legendary Lions, hell she had trouble flying a transport, but dammit she did not want to give up her freedom! Bracing herself for the barrage of derisive comments she knew were coming her way, she climbed into the control room. Within seconds she knew that she had made the wrong decision. Doing a quick mental check she thought about weather or not she could live in her Lion. "Well if I could learn to live without showers I guess I could.." she mumbled to herself.

"What about showers in the lion cockpit?" Pidge asked inquisitively. The look on his face was one of utter confusion, being a mechanic he had no idea as to why Allura's Lion had a shower in it, but that might explain why it was slower than the other lions. However, water was its element after all so a shower wasn't too far off of plausible, he mused to himself. He would have to make sure to double check that system out on Blue Lion when he did diagnostic on it he thought idly to himself as he went off to check his computer.

"I will not jeopardize my team so you can have a joyride in equipment that is far beyond your reach as a pilot!" Keith growled at Allura. "I understand that you're the princess, but this is my team, and frankly they are more important to me than you are." He stormed off to his quarters, clearly done with his end of this discussion.

"I'll go after the old grouch. Maybe I can figure out what his problem is, because as bad of a pilot as you are Princess, it didn't warrant _that_." Lance said as he loped after their captain. The look of annoyance on Allura's face didn't match the hurtful words that had come from their captain's mouth. Their was something between the two that they weren't telling the rest of the group, and it was causing problems.

"I really hope you don't." Allura sighed quietly to herself, her reverie was broken by Hunk asking if maybe it wouldn't be best if she trained a replacement pilot. "How about I replace.." the look on his face stopped her angry tone right in its tracks. He was genuinely worried about her safety. Everyone knew that she couldn't pilot Blue lion very well, and if it weren't for the fact the Lotor pulled his punches when it came to her Lion she would be dead, and she knew it. "I think all I need is some extra training lessons, and to log more hours in the air." She reasoned with him.

"The _extra lessons_ from the Captain seemed to be helping immensely, am I to understand that you stopped them?" came a bemused voice from the intercom.

Allura gritted her teeth in frustration and turned to face the irritating man on the screen. The smile plastered on his face was the the last thing she needed to deal with. "Exactly how much of your day do you spend stalking me and my people _Prince Lotor?"_ Allura asked in an exasperated tone. "And how is it that you manage to garner so much information on us, and still end up defeated at the end of every battle?" Allura tried to muster up as much venom as she could against the man on the screen.

"Well now, what is the victorious party so upset about today? I do believe that you won the battle, so why is it now that you sound so exasperated? Should I go easier on your Blue Lion, is that what is troubling you? You did seem to be struggling out there today my dear." he drawled in common. The look of satisfaction never leaving his face.

"Lotor you creep, you're asking an awful lot of questions for a man who lost half a fleet today!" growled Hunk, "we don't want to hear another question from your fat mouth!"

The smile on Lotor's face was telling, he was way to happy for someone who had supposedly failed in his objective today. "How about one last one," he asked with obviously fake penance plastered on his face. "I need a royal guard to attend me at my Birthday Gala, I am personally requesting you and your Voltron Force. The Gala will span a week and my father and I are offering an armistice agreement with the entire galaxy, _if _your team agrees to be my personal guard for the duration." With a smirk that announced that he had won, he logged off the communicator.

* * *

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Back on his ship Lotor smiled, he wondered how his little princess was going to convince her friends to come to Doom. He had no doubt that she would, he offered the galaxy a week of peace to rebuild and regroup, and she would_ not _let that opportunity pass by. She would show up as his personal guard even if it meant going alone. "But her team knows her too well, they wont let her leave without them, so I guess I'll just have to suffer Red and Yellow Lion's pilots for a week."

Daydreams of Allura coming to him, an image of gold and pink overtook his thoughts of the annoying pilots. He had never developed a preference for that color until her, finding that now half of his closet were clothes designed for her in that color. "I have to come across as obsessively crazy to that poor girl." he thought to himself briefly, cursing his father for mating with a human. If he had bonded with another Drule, who understood blood bonds and Doom customs this whole situation would have gone an entirely different direction. He would already be on the throne, his father would be forced into the dungeons, the galaxy would be at peace; but the world was not built on 'what-ifs.' Dammit all he was going to make the best of this situation, he just wasn't quite sure how yet. "My poor princess is going to be blindsided by the pull that will hit her when she finally lands on Doom." he chuckled as he thought to himself, "I am grateful however that the human blood will lessen the intensity of the blood bond, the poor fools here who bond cant be apart for more the twenty four hours." he sneered. There is no way he'd be able to overthrow his father and abolish the Drule council if he was going to be useless for after a day. He was fairly certain due to his mother's interference that as soon as his bond was recognized by Allura that he would be able to resume being the man that he was. He had not graduated at the top of his class in piloting and strategy on chance. He had been the best military mind in Drule Academy and his scores proved it, this bond was nothing more than a mere annoyance in his grand plan for the Galaxy.

Haggar's voice pulled his thoughts to the present. "What in the name of the Dark gods are you going on about highness?" the witch cackled. This little prince had much to learn, its a shame the old ways had been forgotten, this young man had no idea what he was getting into. However he distracted his father from her plans. She was more than content to help Lotor with his little plans seeing as they provided her the necessary cover for her, but this time was different, this was purely for amusement. Being alive as long as she had meant she had information that no other held. Information like Allura's heritage, specifically that her mother was one-eighth Drule. The blood that lay dormant in Allura's veins was about to be unleashed, and King Zarkon's reign was coming to an end, best laid plans or not.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Betrayal in the Ranks

**Author:** Sapphire Stardust

**Rating:** PG 13

**Summary:** In trade for a weeks worth of peace the Voltron Force heads to Doom as Honor Guards for the Royal Birthday Gala for everyone's favorite Prince of Doom. However one of the members of the Voltron force has switched sides unbeknownst to the rest of the team. They are going to have to make a couple new allies if they want to bring down King Zarkon once and for all.

**Chapters:** 2/?

**Status:** Not Completed

**Betrayal in the Ranks**

**Chapter Two**

"Yes Sir, the group has agreed to go, they will be on Doom in approximately 48 hours. The team is reluctant, the other two smell a trap, unfortunately for them, they are pointing fingers at the wrong side. The distorted voice said from the other side of the Com line. However, the advisor is suspicious, he appears far to observant of my movements, I'll need more time to get things ready here."

"You will have one week from when the Voltron force leaves to get things ready. I will not tolerate failure on your part. Zarkon said thoughtfully. Coran was ever the observant one, he'd have to remember that in the future.

"I understand King Zarkon, all the pieces will be in place when the group return. Report over, Sir." and the line went dead.

Zarkon sat for a moment staring through where the shadow had appeared on his Com, to most casual observers it would look as if her were tired and out of energy, but inside he was alight. Things were going easier than expected. The Princess was being far less of an obstacle than he originally thought her to be. His son was turning out to be quite useful for once, keeping the Galaxy's eye trained on him, so Zarkon was free to move about at will. The pieces he had been planting for the last decade were finally almost in place. He could taste the power at hand. With more energy than one at his age should muster, he placed a call to the witch, his master of the Dark Arts.

"Yes, sire?" the witch's voice cracked overhead. "What need do you have of me and my magic?"

"The Voltron Force, when are they arriving?" the King demanded, as if he were ignorant of the answer, and impatient for news..

The witch smiled, playing the fool was he? He thought to keep secrets from the one who had put him in power? The man was slipping she thought, perhaps old age had dulled his senses over time, "It is unclear yet sire, the Voltron Force has yet to contact us." she said with more than her usual a hint of subtle disrespect. If he was going to play a game of information then she was going to win. "I will send word the moment the answer to your query arrives." and with that she cut communication. She had less than 48 hours to find the spell she was looking for in her archives, and she had even less time than that to undermine all of Zarkon's plans for the Gala. Seven hundred years she had seen, and now she had no time.

'The witch was hurried,' Zarkon mused to himself 'the witch is never hurried'. He wondered for a moment, then wrote it off as insignificant. Another of my sons foolish schemes, why that witch wastes her magic helping a fool, I'll never know. I only hope he doesn't destroy the castle before my plans get off the ground. Zarkon believed the boy to be an absolute terror. Why he had ever thought to mate with a human was beyond his comprehension. His son had turned out a failure, and he blamed the poisoned blood coursing though his veins. He waved at his personal guard and the opened the door, in that moment he unstoppable.

Lotor sighed and put the scanner away. 'Why he continues to bug my room, I'll never know', he though to himself. The fact that his father felt the need to bug his quarters should really have said all that was needed to be said about the way Zarkon ruled doom. "Cossack, Yurak get down here, we have weeding to do", he barked into his communicator. He knew his father had planted spies and insurgents into his army, they had been there since he was first given command. However; he hadn't thought much about them since they had done nothing but follow his orders, so until today he let them be. It wasn't until recently, he had noticed, that they were altering plans and making slight deviations to his orders. Whatever his fathers ambitions were, he was not having it. He had watched his father start plans and set the board more than ten years ago, Zarkon seeming to believe that because he was a child, he would not understand. But recently Lotor had seen too many of the faces from his Childhood in places of power, he knew that his father had started the game, and now his pieces were starting to move. 'I have a bad feeling about this", he muttered under his breath 'my father is dangerous, more so than anyone realizes.'

"Then we best make sure to stop him, shouldn't we?" Cossack quipped from the door.

"That's right, that guys is who gives Cthulhu nightmares. If he is more dangerous than he looks, we should probably just kill him now and do the Galaxy a favor." Yurak responded from beside Cossack.

Lotor grinned at his friends, "How about we start with the pawns and work our way up? Cossack you take the first set of the 'guards' my father has so lovingly 'trusted' to me. Tell them your going to secure the spot for mine and Allura's 'honeymoon.'" Lotor paused, would it really be this easy to destroy ten years of his father's plans? Surely his father would not go down so easy. The man was a tyrant! Yurak clearing his throat snapped Lotor out of his reverie, "Right, Yurak you take the set that Zarkon has scattered about the house posing as 'servants'. I want this hall cleared of his pawns, when he makes his move, it is going to be alone."

"Allura you cant be serious!" Keith nearly screamed "You cant just go making decisions for the rest of us! Keith was furious, first she turned his advances down, and now she was running off to that psycho's side, he was seeing red! "Just so we are clear on this _princess"_ha managed with as much venom as he could muster "_You_ are not going, _we __a_re not going, and _that_ is final!" Keith turned to leave when Coran's hand stopped him.

"I do believe that the princess is right Keith, I think that it would be foolish of us to pass up this opportunity. As much as I firmly disagree with sending the princess into danger, this simply must be done Coran stated. He paused for a minuet to look at the Captain, the man had dark smudges under his eyes, and his body looked ragged as if he hadn't gotten any sleep at all, whatever he and the princess had disagreed about during her flight training must really be eating at him. "Lance; you, Pidge, and Hunk take the princess, the four of you should be able to handle any trouble you might encounter on Doom, that will leave Black Lion here in case Doom decides to attack after all." he was going to need everyone out of the way if he was going to be able to get things ready on time.

"I think I should stay, Lance's voice broke through Coran's thoughts, Black Lion would be way better off on Doom, and Red Lion is much better at defense" he had started before Coran cut him off.

"No, Lance you're going to Doom, Black Lion stays. Discussion over Coran said curtly.

The two boys were in the middle of a very heated stare down and the princess was left to wonder if maybe she was missing something. Lance looked almost determined to stay, and Coran looked just as determined to make him go. The tension in the room was almost a tangible thing, and she was getting tired of not being told things. Lance was hiding things, her advisor was hiding things, and even Nanny looked as if she knew something that she didn't. Allura was sick of it.

"Lance, you, Hunk and Pidge are with me. Nanny you and Keith get to hold down the castle. And Coran, you are coming with us as Official Ambassador of Arus." The princess' voice cut through the room with resounding authority. "I am tired of everyone making decisions for me, Arus is under my rule, and you all will start behaving as if it is such." Before anyone could speak against her decision she was punching the numbers for Lotor's personal Com line. The numbers flew from her hand as if she was possessed, she vaguely had enough time to realize that he'd called her so many times the number was burned into her memory.

Lotor looked down at his Com, and his eyebrows raised in amusement. He and his generals were less than ten minuets into planning the removal of his fathers forces and already he had his answer. The Princess' number flashed across his Com, it had taken less time than he suspected for her to get The Voltron Force. When he flipped open the line he was greeted by a group of shouting people behind a rather peeved looking princess. He couldn't help the grin that broke across his face, his judgment of his Princess was spot on if he wasn't mistaken. "Why hello darling, you look as if you have won the war on terror today." he started to quip, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"Kill the small talk Lotor. Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Coran, and I are all going to be attending your Gala, Coran is going as the Official Ambassador, so you will make sure that he has.." Allura started to say, before he cut her off.

"Yes, yes. You all will be addressed according to your station, although I must admit it is a shock to have the Princess and the Advisor on the same mission, and here I thought you didn't like me Coran." Lotor broke in with an amused tone. "What time will you be arriving?" he almost whistled.

"Forty-eight hours. Good day Prince Lotor." Allura snapped

The last thing the Prince saw was a furious Coran staring at him, and an even more furious Lance staring at the Princess. The rest of the force looked confused as to what had happened, and the captain was nowhere to be found. He killed his Com line with a very thoughtful look on his face.

"Sir, whats the matter?" Cossack asked hurriedly.

Lotor's took a few seconds to mull over his answer, then much to the shock of his comrades he responded with simply, "I do believe _father_ has an agent in the Voltron Force."


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Betrayal in the Ranks

**Author:** Sapphire Stardust

**Rating:** PG 13

**Summary:** In trade for a weeks worth of peace the Voltron Force heads to Doom as Honor Guards for the Royal Birthday Gala for everyone's favorite Prince of Doom. However one of the members of the Voltron force has switched sides unbeknownst to the rest of the team. They are going to have to make a couple new allies if they want to bring down King Zarkon once and for all.

**Chapters:** 3/?

**Status:** Not Completed

**Wade wells: **Thank you so much for your feedback. I tried to put Allura back in character, she is (hopefully) going to get stronger over time, but I think it happened a little too quickly in the first two chapters.

**Betrayal in the Ranks**

**Chapter Three**

While the others were off getting ready, the pilot for Red Lion was busy throwing things around his room in rage. "Dammit all," he swore under his breath, "three months of planning, wasted." he growled angrily to himself. "Out of all of the days princess had to choose to grow a backbone, it was the day that it was going to interfere with months of planning." He ran a hand through his hair absently, the gesture of impatience all but going unnoticed to the pilot. The other occupant who had just arrived, had noticed however.

"You seem much more troubled than necessary young pilot." Coran's strong voice sounded loudly from the door. "Any particular reason?" He studied the young man carefully. He had thought that it would be Pidge or Allura to catch on first, not the young man standing in front of him. Coran weighed his options carefully, he had always figured the young man in front of him to be rash and bold in all of his moves. He had glossed over the fact that he was one of Galaxy Garrison's top pilots for a reason. "Come with me," Coran stated before Lance had a moment to answer, "I have a feeling that I can help you with answers." He had turned to leave, making the young man hurry after him.

When the duo had gotten to Coran's room he shut and locked the door behind him, Lance's eyes went huge for a moment. Had he been wrong, was the man in front of him the Doom spy? His eyes narrowed and he made ready to lunge at the advisor when Coran grabbed a book from his shelf opening up to a secret passage way. "Follow me, we don't have much time." Coran said firmly. When they got to the bottom of the staircase Lance was astonished to find none other than Nanny at the bottom. Lance could never recall a moment in his life when he had been more confused. Coran dialed a quick set of numbers on his Com and a blurry image of a cloaked figure appeared on the screen. "It appears that we have run into a problem, I need a set of the agreed items, transported now."

The figure was slow answering, so when the distorted voice abruptly cut into his thoughts, Lance jumped. "You always have the most ill timed requests Coran." the voiced sounded amused "haven't you ever considered planning ahead dearie?" Lance could have sworn he had heard a cat in the background, but the thought was gone when a flash of white blinded him momentarily.

"Thank you, I will broadcast again when I have the information you asked for." Coran said, and cut the connection. He picked up two bracelets from the handed one to Nanny. Right before Lance's eyes he watched as Coran became Nanny and Nanny became Coran. Right down to voice and height.

Coran looked at a very stunned Lance and decided a brief explanation was in order.

"Now Lance, as I am sure that you know, Zarkon has endless plans when it comes to this galaxy." Coran said hurriedly. "But it has never been in more danger than it is right now. 17 years ago, Zarkon placed a large group of people in very innocuous places, but as of seven months ago, every single one of those people rose to power. I cant tell you everything now, but it will all be explained when you get to Doom. What you do have to do however, is trust me when I say, that this next weeks events will shape this galaxy, and if the allies that King Alfor and I have made do not come out victorious, it will not be for the better."

Lance sat there slack jawed, he knew that it had been Coran talking, but that serious of a tone and that grave of words coming from what looked like Nanny was a situation he found hard to take seriously. Still with the expression on his faces he was ushered back up the stairs to Coran's bedroom. He thought for a moment and decided that he needed to tell Coran what he suspected "I need to." Lance started as a pounding on the door stopped Lance mid sentence. Allura opened the door to Coran's room to ask if he was ready, but when she saw Lance and Nanny she started.

"Lance what are you doing in here, you're supposed to be getting ready." she chided. She was mostly back to her calm self, she wasn't sure why she had that bad of an out burst earlier, she assumed it had something to do with being forced into proximity of Keith again.

"I was telling him that he'd better behave himself while he is on Doom. I don't care how much of of heathens the Drule act like, if I find out he acted the way he did here I'll tan his hide!" Nanny said in a stern voice. Lance looked amused and Allura decided that it was probably for the best if she just let Nanny handle him.

"I am sorry for the way I acted earlier," she told the group, "I need to learn to express my opinions in a more regal manner from now on." and with that she nodded to the group and left the room.

"Go get suited Lance, we depart in ten minuets." Coran stated.

With a chuckle Lance left the room, with as amusing as it was to see Coran's seriousness coming from Nanny's face, it was way more hilarious watching him try and play the part of Nanny in front of Allura. He shook his head and ran to his room to get ready.

"We are green to go." Pidge called out ten minuets later when everyone was in the control room. He had packed all of the equipment that he was going to need for the modifications he was planning, and all the Lions had passed system checks with green.

"Right." Lance said, and hoped into his tunnel. His mind was too focused on the information he was digesting to notice the way Keith was glaring at Allura. As the other two pilots dropped down their tunnels, Allura felt someone boring a hole in her back. She turned around to see Keith glaring at her like she was the reason Zarkon was evil. "I'm sorry Keith" she said apologetically, "but I'm not changing my mind on this." With that she dropped down her tunnel. 'Coran' left 'Nanny' with instructions, and turned to walk toward the front gate where Red Lion was waiting for him, throwing one last glare the Captain's way.

Keith smiled to himself, he would have Allura, one way or the other. Arus was entirely unguarded and they had left him here with no one to stop him. His grin turned maniacal as he retreated to his room to plan the capture of the planet. Coran knew that he had won, Keith suspected nothing and would be caught entirely off guard. He followed Keith quietly to his rooms, and used the secret one-way window he had installed to watch the captain, when he pulled out the com and started dialing, Coran knew it was only a matter of seconds before the plan was set in motion. He just hoped the last 17 years of preparation was enough.

"Sire, the force has left, I will begin preparations for the fleet's landing. Everything is right on schedule." Keith spoke in a confident tone. "I held my end of the bargain, I'm assuming you'll keep yours?"

"Yes, yes." Zarkon drawled, almost sounding bored. "I will keep your precious princess here until you come to claim her. The brat is more trouble than she is worth if you ask me." A princess for Voltron? Zarkon was more than pleased with the trade, although he did briefly wonder what power this princess held that all the men around her fell to their knees. It seemed vaguely familiar, a nagging memory at the back of his mind. "I will send the troops out in 72 hours. Everything had better be ready." With that Zarkon logged off.

Keith smiled, everything was going perfectly, and then his world went black. Coran stood over the young man's crumpled form. The man grimaced, this wasn't how he had wanted it to be. Coran had feared Zarkon using mind control on the boy, but to know that he was willing working for the deranged King means that they would indeed be down a pilot. Who was going to be flying Black Lion in the upcoming war?


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Betrayal in the Ranks

**Author:** Sapphire Stardust

**Rating:** R +17 ( Violence)

**Summary:** In trade for a weeks worth of peace the Voltron Force heads to Doom as Honor Guards for the Royal Birthday Gala for everyone's favorite Prince of Doom. However one of the members of the Voltron force has switched sides unbeknownst to the rest of the team. They are going to have to make a couple new allies if they want to bring down King Zarkon once and for all.

**Chapters:** 4/?

**Status:** Not Completed

**Author's Notes:** This is going to be a major fight scene, it has a fair bit of violence and death.

**Betrayal in the Ranks**

**Chapter Four**

Yurak walked up to Captain Lauric the 'captain' of the 'servants.' "Direct orders from King Zarkon. A party of loyalists has decided to defect, we are to intercept them at their rendezvous. Have your team meet me at the fourth loading bay in forty-five minuets." The captain was startled, then nodded briefly and briskly scurried off. Yurak saw him whispering to a few other 'servants' and then they scattered. He smiled to himself. Lotor was right; Zarkon had put so much effort into secrecy, that posing as an officer for his forces was easier than he had ever imagined it would be. With a flourish he was off to find Merla, it was time for her part in the plan. "I wish I hadn't drawn the short straw when it came to Merla duty," he grumbled inaudibly "she is going to be a raging bitch when she discovers that Lotor is using Allura as his personal body guard." Yurak groaned at the mental image of the fiery red head directing all of her rage at the messenger, him. Sometime during his mental berating of himself for not having ex-ray vision, he had arrived at Merla's door. He knocked with trepidation; when a servant answered the door he almost sighed with relief. "Is Lady Merla present?" He questioned the young servant girl.

"I'm sorry Sir, the Lady is out right now. She should be back in a few hours." She replied in a soft voice, head bowed.

"Excellent, I shall wait here for her then" Yurak stated, walking past the girl. If his luck held Merla was too busy to hear the rumors of who was to be attending the Prince at his Gala and he would be spared her wrath.

Cossack wondered if Yurak had been having a similarly easy time infiltrating Zarkon's forces. He had not only managed to convince the infiltrators in Lotor's army that he was acting general of Zarkon's secret forces, but that they were actually on their way to ambush a group of assassins plotting against Zarkon himself. He had made the matter so urgent that they had failed to send for verification, resulting inn the entirety of Zarkon's minions rushing to destroy each other on a false battle ground. He shook his head in disappointment, the captain at his side noting the movement. "Is something wrong Sir?" Captain Helzar inquired.

Cossack looked up startled, since when was he one to become lost in thought? "Who would be foolish enough to pull an assassination attempt on the King?" he mused to the Captain. The Captain looked confused for a moment, and then pondered the question himself; Who would be foolish enough to pull such an attempt? His musings were interrupted by a shout from below.

"Sir we have located the base, we will be landing in 5 minuets" one of the cadets said with a salute.

"Send out the alert, all troops are to prepare for battle" with that the Captain went to gear up with his men. For a moment Cossack felt terrible for the loss of life that he was about to commit; until he remember that these were men who willingly choose to serve Zarkon, the fools needed to die. He picked up his Link-Com and called for the Captain and team leaders to meet in the conference room to discuss the strategy. His resolve was set, his conscious be dammed.

"They will split into teams when they reach the barracks, I want a party of men at the back entrance to every building, take them by surprise when they attempt to enter the building. They have no idea that we are waiting for them, they will be caught completely off guard. However, in case the Captain has decided to gain some sense of intelligence since we last clashed you need to be prepared for sweepers." Yurak grinned at his audience. "This battle should be short and sweet. There is no acceptable reason for failure." The men around him looked as at ease as he felt. He understood that it was men like this that gave drules a bad name. These men would willingly follow a monster, then he would willingly send them to their deaths. He thought back to the look on Cossack's face when they were discussing strategy in Lotor's chambers. The man looked as if he was against the idea of having Zarkon's forces eliminate each other. Yurak couldn't understand, this seemed the best possible course of action. Have the bad guys eliminate the other bad guys, this way no good people died. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, this was not the time for moral hang-ups. "Get your men to their posts, the defectors are starting their landing sequence."

When the last of the team leaders and commanders had left the room, he pulled out his com to see if Merla was in place as well. "Affirmative." It was all the device said, and all the assurance that he needed. "Launch plan" he barked into his Link-Com.

It seemed eerily quiet Captain Lauric though to himself as he lead his team to the Captain's tents. He wanted to get off of this asteroid, he had a bad feeling about this place. As his team neared their destination he heard the light shuffling of footsteps. He tensed and waited, knowing that this was going to be more of a battle then they predicted.

Captain Helzar felt as if the air was becoming heavy, his breath sounding harsh to his ears. As he lead his team to their designated spot he realized that the silence meant that the enemy had heard them coming. He pulled up flush to a wall, sensing something on the other side, he gave the signal to approach slowly hoping that the Dark Gods were smiling in their favor today.

Almost as if on Que, the two Captains' Link-Coms sounded. "Are you in position Captain?" the two rounded the corner in the same second, lasers drawn as they moved. The two looked at each other for a brief second, the two recognizing each other before their reflexes kicked in and they both fired, exactly on target. "Captain!" Eight voices screamed in unison, and then the screams began.

Everywhere there were screams of agony, soldiers dying others being mortally wounded. Everywhere there was blood. Neither team had brought enough medics because both thought that it was going to be a simple elimination mission. After the initial shock of the first few minuets each team called for a regroup. Lauric called back into command, "Sir they were waiting for us, it was an ambush, they must have an informant on our side!" He practically shouted into the Link-Com. He was hurt bad, and as his medic was already dead, he knew that he wasn't going to last much longer. He couldn't believe it, the traitor was his best friend, they had grown up together and now they were on opposite sides of the battle field. "I know the opposing captain Sir, I think I know his strategy." Lauric coughed into the Link-Com.

Across the field Helzar sat stunned, clutching at the wound on his neck. His medic was dying and wasn't much help to anyone, besides his men came first. "Sir, the assassins knew we where here, they ambushed us," he sputtered into the Link-Com. He couldn't believe that his best friend would be the one on the suicide mission. "I know why they thought they could pull off the attempt on the king's life though, the damn bastards are traitors." His head was starting to feel light from blood loss, so he barked out orders to his men with the last of his strength. As he lay there dying, blood pooling around his body he couldn't help but feel a sense of calm; he had felt as though he'd made the wrong choice recently, and now he atoning for his actions. A sense of calm washed over him as he quietly slipped away.

Lauric's men had been obliterated, Helzar had seen his moves coming and now there was nothing but death on the battlefield. He would be surprised if anyone had survived. He was crawling back toward his ship when he saw a familiar face. "Helzar, what have we done?" He muttered to no one in particular. "We were fools playing a fools game." He sat next to his friend and felt the blackness creep in from the corners of his vision. When he heard a noise he looked about, hoping to see one of his men still standing. What he saw was Drule women going around putting laser beams through all of the mortally wounded men. In his brain he vaguely registered Merla's colors, but what he saw were the Dark Gods' Angels of Mercy. He heard what sounded like a laser beam right behind him, and his world went black.


End file.
